Pyeongtaek City Monitors Livestock Farm Odors 24/7 with Unmanned System

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Seo Dong-young] Pyeongtaek City announced on the 2nd that it has installed unmanned odor monitoring systems at livestock farms with severe odor problems and is establishing and operating a real-time surveillance system.

This initiative comes in response to frequent complaints from odor emissions at livestock farms and conflicts between local residents.

The unmanned odor monitoring system will be installed at three locations on the boundaries of livestock farms with severe odor issues this year, with plans to gradually expand. The system records odor conditions 24 hours a day in real-time, including instances where odor levels exceed the standard threshold, and is expected to have positive effects such as encouraging livestock farm owners to make odor reduction efforts.

Additionally, the system enables securing objective data through surveillance for addressing odor complaints that were previously difficult to resolve due to challenges in proper odor sampling, allowing for more effective responses.

Previously, when odor complaints occurred, city officials would visit the site to collect odor samples and check for standard threshold exceedances. However, proper sampling proved difficult due to changes in weather conditions such as wind and temperature. In fact, out of 87 odor sampling inspections conducted by the city in 2019, only 7 cases, representing just 8% of total inspections, exceeded the odor standard threshold.

The city plans to utilize real-time data from the monitoring system when odor complaints arise, calculate precise threshold exceedance values, and guide odor reduction through administrative measures such as fines.

A city official stated, "With the installation of unmanned odor measurement devices, 24-hour monitoring is possible regardless of vulnerable times such as holidays or nighttime, so farm owners will also be more vigilant and make efforts to reduce odors. We will continue to make efforts to reduce odors from livestock farms to improve residents' living environment."